Xbox Modding and...a Gmail Invite!

WARNING: Certain parts of this post may be constituted as illegal, so don't blame me when the MPAA comes and kicks down your door.

It's almost the end of the month, you're very nearly broke (so you can't buy DVDs) and the only way for you to watch a movie is by being part of an insidious network called P2P and actually downloading stuff. Now normally this is a fine arrangement, but I've gotten so used to watching vids on my telly that actually hunkering down to squint into a small 15" monitor just doesn't cut it anymore.

What's a movie buff on a budget to do? Simple, if he has an Xbox. The Xbox mod community has come up with a homebrew software called the Xbox Media Player. It's designed to play almost any form of media (even the sometimes iffy Xvid format) on the Xbox. What this means is that an Xbox owner will be able to access VCDs, JPEGS, MPEGS, mp3s, OGGs and God knows what else from a home network or CD/DVD. Great. This sounds like a solution, and therefore my newest DIY project is born: The OxBMP! If anyone's asking why don't I just burn the files to a VCD or something, the DivX and Xvid formats give better A/V quality, and right now it's a shame to lose all that high definition glory (besides converting between them to VCD is a pain in the butt).

To start using this wonderful software on my modded (read: warranty void) console, I'll need several cheap (and other free) items:

1) A crossover cable to connect my NIC on the PC to the Xbox's ethernet port.

- This is rather cheap, and can be gotten from any reasonable PC hardware depot.

2) The XBMP software

- Unfortunately, due to legal constraints, only the source code is made public and users will have to compile the code themselves using an SDK (of which there are several types, and I have none). Thankfully, there are several torrents floating around that have the full compiled binaries, and I may be able to snag one of them.

3) FlashFXP

- This is an FTP software that's highly recommended by Xbox modders for transferring files to and from the console. It's not free, but there's a 30 day demo that should be more than adequate for my needs.

4) Tutorials!

- As of the time of writing, I'm knee deep in several tutorials that explains exactly how I'm supposed to install the blasted thing and hopefully make it work. All of these are free for the downloading.

Right, so that's that. Wish me luck as I attempt this endeavour (and try not to screw up the console in the process) and if you're still reading this, I thought I'd offer a little reward:

A Gmail invite!

And it's very easy to get, too! All you have to do is give me a short idea/plot outline for a horror movie, preferably less than 100 words and the best idea submitted to me via email (check the link at the sidebar) will get a nice shiny new Gmail invite! So if you're interested, give it a go!

I await your entries while I figure out this whole shebang.
Cheers!